


Snowfall

by TenebrificCas



Category: X-Men (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Graphic Description, Multiple Endings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-30
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-05-17 03:58:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5853196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenebrificCas/pseuds/TenebrificCas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She shouldn't have opened the door to a stranger, but her nurse instincts kicked in when she saw that he was injured. Little did she know that Erik Lehnsherr was in danger of more than just his injury.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Original ending

It was the loud thumping on my front door that startled me from my peaceful sleep. I got up, wrapping myself in a blanket before going to answer the door. The clock had read 3:24 in the morning, so that meant that no one should be at my house.

I stood on my toes to look through the peephole, and then moved to look through a crack in the blinds of the window next to me when I couldn't see anyone. Through the window, I saw a huddled mass of what I presumed to be a man. I could hear him groaning, and he had a hand pressed to his chest. Well, I was probably about to ruin everything by opening the door, so that's what I did. I was too curious not to.

I left the chain locked as I opened the door, "Hello?"

"Please, can you help me?" a deep, accented, and slightly pained voice came through the crack of the door. He tried to stand and ended up collapsing entirely. I felt something warm splatter onto my bare feet. Blood. I could smell it suddenly, and it made me want to gag. Some nurse I was, huh?

I quickly unchained the lock, and threw open the door. The swift motion pulled some of the loose snow by my door inside. A few flecks hit my feet and I tried not to flinch. He attempted to stand again, and this time I helped him inside. I kicked the door shut as I led him to my bathroom. All I could tell for certain was that he was taller than me, shirtless, his hands were bound together, and he was bleeding heavily.

"The edge is about knee height." I explained, helping him lay in the bathtub. He bent his knees and sank lower so that he was flat on his back. He hissed in pain. I decided then to turn on the light and see what and who I was dealing with.

The first thing I noticed was the long and deep gash across the upper left part of his toned chest. It was bleeding quite a bit, which worried me. After that, I took in his jaw and my gaze went to his face. I couldn't find a single flaw. The next thing I noticed was his dark hair because it was sticking to his forehead in what I presumed was sweat. His eyes were squeezed shut in pain, so I couldn't see what color could be hiding behind them. Also, a simple silver chain was around his long neck.

"I can stitch myself up, just, please cut this damn rope." he groaned, holding his hands straight into the air. I tried not to focus too much on how the muscles in his arms flexed when he did that.

I tossed a towel to him, "Put pressure on that. I'll get a knife."

I hurried from the room and went to the kitchen. I grabbed a knife from the block, and tried to even out my breathing. I spotted a bottle on the counter and grabbed it. I then returned, and mentally cursed myself for letting in this gorgeous bloody stranger.

He was sort of sitting up, and was staring at me when I walked in. His eyes were the most vivid and clear green I had even seen. It was as if they were enchanted green marbles that captured the gaze of anyone close to him.

"You got a name?" I wondered, walking closer and cutting his bonds in one swift motion. He removed the scraps of rope and rubbed his wrists. They were discolored to an angry red, black, and blue. Whoever had cuffed him, hadn't planned on ever taking the rope off.

"Erik Lehnsherr." he answered, pressing the already nearly soaked towel to his chest again with the hand that wasn't taking the whiskey from me.

"Well, Erik, I'm Maxine. To you, I'm Max, and I'm also a nurse." I told him, not giving him my last name. It wasn't as if that would prevent anything considering he was already in my home.

"You are?" he looked relieved, opening the bottle quickly and taking a swig.

"Yes, sir. So do you wanna tell me how this happened?" I asked, pulling out my first aid kid. As I waited for a response, I doused the small spool of thread and the needle in pure alcohol. 

"My old friend has become corrupt. He has turned against myself and many others who once knew him as a brother. He likes to capture mutants and torture them until they either go insane or die from pain. He caught me off guard and attempted to torture me. I somehow escaped, though." he explained, voice becoming shaky. He drank some more whiskey, grimacing a bit when he swallowed.

"That's terrible." I sighed bitterly, motioning for him to remove the towel. He took a large swig of the drink and then nodded at me. I wanted a drink of the alcohol, too, but that would mess up my focus on what I was doing.

He bit down on the towel when I began sewing up his wound. He had a pretty high pain tolerance, I noted. I also noted that he was staring at my face the entire time I was stitching him up. It was a bit distracting considering just how attractive he was.

"All done." I said, tying a knot in the thread. Then, I grabbed another towel to wipe off his bloodied chest. He rested his head against the wall of the shower and shut his eyes. Before I could hand him the dampened towel, he was already asleep.

I stared at him in wonder for a few moments before deciding to clean him up anyway. He presumably wouldn't wake up for a while after that ordeal. I cleaned his chest and hands as best I could, but it was quite difficult to do without waking him up. Then, when I deemed him clean enough, I stuck a gauze patch over his wound. Then, I threw away both towels, cleaned up the medical supplies, washed my hands, and put my blanket over him. I grabbed a pillow from my room to put under his head before deciding to grab a glass of water to put on the counter near him. I lit a small candle, and shut the light off. There, he should be comfortable now.

Exhausted from the torrent of emotions I had just experienced, I went back to my room and flopped onto my bed. I fell back asleep within minutes.  
*****

"Max?" came Erik's gentle voice near my bed. I had almost thought it had been a dream until he touched my shoulder. His hand was large and warm, and I wanted to groan out loud. He was gonna be nice now, too? Was this man perfect, then?

"Morning." I sighed, opening my eyes and sitting up. He still had the blanket mostly wrapped around his bare chest, and I tried to focus on those unfaltering green eyes of his.

"Morning. Here, come with me." he smiled a bit, extending his hand to me and he threw the blanket onto the bed.

"Uh, alright." I took his hand and he helped me up. He continued to hold my hand as if I would try to get away from him or something.

"It's the most I could do for causing all this trouble." he said, leading me into my own kitchen. On the table was an arrangement of eggs, bacon, and a mountain of toast. I mentally hit myself for not smelling the bacon earlier.

"You did all this?" I asked for reassurance as I walked over to the table. I grabbed the mug of coffee sitting there and took a sip. I was one of the seldom few who liked black coffee, and I was glad he had made some.

"Yes, I did. I had to learn because- uh, actually never mind." he had started to explain but then stopped himself. I was curious but didn't press him.

"Well, thank you. Uh, I have pain reliever in the cabinet if you need some." I suggested, noticing his slight grimace as he sat down.

"I already took some." he admitted sheepishly.

"Alrighty then. Eat up." I smiled, gathering food onto my plate.

"Can I ask what your opinion on mutant-kind is?" he asked suddenly, before taking a bite of toast.

"Human, mutant, I don't care. They're part of our world so people just have to accept them. It's ridiculous the way they try to ostracize a particular race, but that's what we've always done. Black, Jewish, gay, mutant, whatever. We all live here, so it might as well be in peace." I ranted, getting a bit annoyed. My coworkers sometimes refused to help mutants, so I was a bit angry about it.

"I'm glad you feel that way." he nodded. He slowly lifted his hand, and the fork I was holding lifted into the air. He manipulated it into spinning a few times before allowing me to grab it again.

"You're telekinetic?" I wondered, staring at him in wonder.

"Not quite. I can only manipulate metal." he shook his head.

"Ahh, I see. That's probably very helpful." I smiled at him. I was in awe.

Before he could say anything, a loud knock came on my front door. Erik paled, and tentatively touched the chain around his neck.

"Erik. Who is that?" I whispered.

"Charles Xavier. He's a telepath, and this keeps him from reading my thoughts. Come here." he whispered, jumping up. He took the chain off and wrapped it once around his wrist. He looped it around mine, and then motioned for me to get the door.

I walked with him, getting nervous. There was bound to be blood on my doorstep, which would be a major indicator that Erik was here. Well, I just hoped that this telepath wouldn't look down.

"Can I help you?" I asked as I opened the door to chilly air and the stranger. I was startled to see a man equally as gorgeous as the one holding my left hand behind the door. He was slightly shorter than Erik, but still taller than me. I couldn't help but notice his close fitting jeans, blue sweater, green pea coat, and scarf. He was gorgeous. His eyes were extremely bright blue and locked onto mine the moment I opened the door. He broke into a smile, which made me want to smile back. This was Charles, the monster who liked to torture his own kind?

"Yes, I'm looking for someone. He is quite tall with dark hair and green eyes. He can manipulate metal, and needs to be caught. He murdered four people yesterday and then escaped." Charles explained. I could easily tell that he was lying straight through his soothing British accent.

"Uh, I'm sorry. I haven't seen him. I woke up five minutes ago." I lied back, trusting that he couldn't read my thoughts. I glanced down for a moment, and was extremely relieved that more snow had fallen in the last few hours. There was no evidence of blood anywhere.

Charles didn't say anything as he stared me down. For a moment, I felt a throb of pain in my head before it quickly subsided. What was that? Was that his attempt to read my thoughts?!

"Hmm. Alright, then. Call me immediately if you see him." Charles sighed, annoyed. He angrily handed me a piece of paper before leaving. I waited until he disappeared around the block before shutting the door.

Suddenly, Erik grabbed me around the waist and hefted me into the air with ease. He spun me around, laughing in pure joy. I laughed too, caught up on his infectious happiness. He began lowering me, but stopped when he was at the perfect height to kiss me. I was so caught off guard that I had no time to react to him before he pulled away. I felt blood rush to my face and neck, in shock that he kissed me.

"You have no idea how thankful I am that you have saved me." he said, placing me back on the floor. He looked so happy and relieved, that my heart melted a bit. 

"I'm glad you're happy." I got out, smiling like an idiot. I tossed the slip of paper onto the floor.

"I am so happy! And hungry. Let's eat." he suddenly seemed to remember the food on the table and hurried me over to it with him. He was so overwhelmingly happy that I couldn't help but just watch him as we talked for hours and hours. This was the best snow day ever.


	2. Alternate ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if the chain hadn't protected both Erik and Max?

"Hmm. Alright, then. Call me immediately if you see him." Charles sighed, annoyed. He angrily handed me a piece of paper before leaving. I waited until he disappeared around the block before shutting the door.

Erik was trying to slip the chain off of my wrist, being very gentle. He was extremely pale, and his breathing was sporadic. I wanted to hug the poor mutant. The moment he pulled it from me, a pain so intense ripped through my brain that I didn't even notice that I had collapsed to the floor until Erik was pulling me into his lap. I vaguely recognized that I was screaming, but it didn't mean a thing to me.

The cold metal chain was back around my wrist, but it was too late. I just knew that Charles had read my thoughts, and that he knew that Erik was here. He would be returning any moment, and I had a strong feeling that someone was going to get hurt. What could I do? I was just human.

A moment later, Charles broke down my door. Erik cried out, helping me to my feet. It became a staring match until Charles began to laugh.

"Don't you know the more people you share that with, the weaker the protection? I could feel your thoughts, my old friend." Charles chuckled.

"Leave him alone!" I shouted, angry that Charles had went after my mind.

"Why do you care what happens to this abomination?" Charles sneered, glaring at Erik.

"Because he is far more than what you give him credit for." I said, taking Erik's hand. They were almost cuffed together by the way Erik had wrapped the chain this time.

"Oh, really? I've read every thought and memory of this man. He is a cold-blooded murderer, and needs to be stopped. I wasn't lying earlier." Charles countered.

"That's because you made me kill them!" Erik roared. He yanked his hand out of the chain and charged his old friend. The telepath was too stunned to stop his friend before he tackled him to the ground.

As they fought, I watched on in horror. This was not some measly tussle. Charles and Erik were aiming to kill.

"Stop!" I screamed. I ran over to the two, and shoved Charles as hard as I could off of Erik. I collapsed with the momentum, my shoulder on top of Charles'.

Erik wiped blood from his lip, and then extended a hand backward. A knife flew off the table and into his hand. He grinned, and swung down at his old friend.

"No!" I screamed. Charles had grabbed me and hauled me on top of him entirely, letting Erik's blow land on my chest. I barely had time to look down at the knife hilt or assess the agony spreading in my body before Charles shoved me off of him.

"Charles! What have you done!" Erik cried, coming to my aid. I cried out, any movement that I made moved the knife that was stuck deep in my chest. Blood warmed my skin, seeping from the wound quickly since it was so close to my heart.

"What do you care!? She's human!" Charles scoffed, wiping his nose. It streaked blood across his cheek and his hand, and made his bleeding nose look worse than it was.

"How can you say that? Were our roles not reversed so many years ago? You were the one who told me that if I accepted humans as they had accepted me, then I would be able to be happy." Erik cried, his salty tears falling upon me as he cradled me.

"Look where that got us. I was wrong, Erik. You can join me on the right side, the one you had fought on when we met." Charles tried to persuade, coming closer to the two of us.

Erik looked from Charles and back to me, and the moment we locked eyes Charles produced a knife of his own from his boot and plunged it into Erik's back. The mutant holding tightly onto me roared in pain, and slowly sank to the floor. Dear god, who would save us now? Charles Xavier was going to kill us both.

Snip, snip, snip came the sound of the stitches being cut. I looked in horror to the two men beside me. Charles had straddled his friend's chest and was reopening the wound he had already given Erik. Within seconds, Erik was laying in a pool of crimson. No, this couldn't be happening!

"You should've listened to me, Erik Lehnsherr." Charles panted, climbing off his friend and sitting closer to me. I watched him slick back his hair with Erik's blood.

I slowly pulled the blade from my chest, biting my free hand to keep quiet. It would cause me to bleed out faster, but I needed to use it. If I couldn't stop Charles, then who would?

"Charles." I got out, hiding the knife against my thigh so he couldn't see it.

"What is it?" he sighed, turning to me.

I quickly grabbed his scarf and hauled myself up. I tackled him to the floor, sprawling across his chest. I plunged the knife straight into his cheek, pressing harder when I heard and felt the cracking and grinding of the blade passing through his cheekbone. He stared at me in shock, blood flowing heavily from his mouth and new wound. Thankfully, the placement of the weapon prevented him from speaking any more.

"Fuck you." I spat a mixture of blood and spit into his face, and shoved myself off of him and in between the two men. My vision began to grow dark, and I struggled to breathe. Blood was filling my lungs, I deduced.

I grabbed Erik's hand as the feeling in it began to fade. He whimpered and grabbed it tightly back. He shifted so that he could lean over and press a shaky kiss to my temple. The last thing I saw before I went unconscious were his green eyes.

*****

I gasped aloud as I was snapped back to reality. Charles stared at me, face pale and lips trembling. Tears began rolling down his cheeks in fat droplets.

"That's what will happen if you keep trying to kill your best friend." I breathed, touching my chest in the spot I thought I had been stabbed in.

Erik let out a sob, having been connected to my thoughts through the chain around the both of our wrists. He yanked open the door all the way and tackled his friend into a hug. The two fell to the snow covered ground, crying. I stood there in shock, thinking of what I had seen. It had all felt so real!

"Please, come back to me, Charles. I beg of you, come back to me!" Erik cried, cupping the telepath's cheeks in his hands.

"I'm here, I'm here. She broke the treatment!" Charles pulled away, standing up to hug me instead. I hugged back reluctantly, unsure of what he was talking about.

"You're a mutant! You can show others the future based on their decisions." Charles explained, crying. He released me to help Erik to his feet as well.

"I've never done that before." I said. I thought mutations became present when one went through puberty!?

"There have been some cases in which the mutation gene has been dormant, and brought forth due to a life or death situation." Charles explained to me, looking up at his friend. They took each other's hand.

"Thank you, Max. Thank you." Erik told me, taking my hand. He placed the chain into it, and closed my fingers around the cool metal.

"Because of you, I have my life back." Charles looked at me, the full force of his bright blue eyes crashing into mine.

I motioned for them to come inside. We all sat around my small table, and ate the remaining breakfast. I had saved a life, gained two friends, and discovered that I was a mutant myself. I never expected that today would turn out this way, but I was very glad that it did.


End file.
